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CMap Tools PDF
CMap Tools PDF
Introduction
The CmapTools software suite allows users to construct concept maps representing their
understanding of a domain of knowledge. In the case of a large domain, or of a detailed
representation of a domain, a single concept map can become unmanageable for the user to
comprehend, display, and manipulate. To facilitate the construction of large representations,
CmapTools allows the user to split them into collections of concept maps (Cmaps). To show the
relationships between the Cmaps in the set, the software facilitates the linking of Cmaps, enabling
the navigation from one Cmap to another. Additionally, the user can establish links to other types
of resources (e.g. images, videos, sound clips, text) that help explain and complement the
information in the map.
A set of concept maps and associated resources about a particular domain of knowledge is
referred to as a Knowledge Model. CmapTools provides a rich collection of features that allow
users to easily construct Knowledge Models (create the Cmaps and establish the links between
Cmaps and resources), and publish and share them through Places (servers) or the WWW.
Figure 1 shows several opened windows, the result of navigating through a Knowledge Model on
Mars (Briggs 2001). The “Mars” Cmap is the top-level map, the entry point to this Knowledge
Model. Some concepts in the “Mars” Cmap have small icons underneath them. These icons
indicate that there are other resources (e.g. images, text, videos, Web pages, other Cmaps) that
contain additional information, refer to, or further explain that particular concept. By clicking the
“concept map” icon underneath a concept, a list of available Cmaps is displayed, which the user
can select and open. For example, by clicking on the “concept map” icon underneath the
“Exploration Strategy” concept, from the list of Cmaps displayed, the user can select and open a
Figure 1: A Knowledge Model on the Mars domain, consisting of over 100 linked Cmaps and over 600 MBs of
resources.
As the number of Cmaps and other resources grows, manipulating them in a flat structure as
displayed in Figure 2 becomes unmanageable. CmapTools offers the possibility of creating a
hierarchical structure of folders to organize the resources better. Using the File/New Folder menu
Figure 3
Figure 5
Lewis Centaur Rocket System” and
“Understanding Science”. The folders
under each of these are used for organizational
purposes within those domains. “Nasa-Lewis
Centaur Rocket System” and “Understanding
Science” are Knowledge Models: collections
of linked resources about a particular domain
of knowledge.
Figure 7
This dialogue box in Figure 6 also
allows the user to select the Home
Cmap for the Knowledge Model
(click on the Select… button). The
Home Cmap identifies the
recommended initial point for
browsing through the Knowledge
Model. Figure 7 shows the Cmap
“Top Level” in the “Nasa-Lewis
Centaur Rocket System”
Knowledge Model with a different
icon after being selected as the
Home Cmap for that model.
The Knowledge Model also provides the domain context for the Cmaps and resources it contains.
An instance of this use is the linking of resources across Knowledge Models. Figures 8 and 9
provide an example.
The Views window in Figure 8 displays two Knowledge Models: “CmapTools” (a collection of
concept maps about the CmapTools software), and “Meaningful Learning” (a set of Cmaps on
Figure 9
Figure 9 shows the opened Cmap “CmapTools” from the “CmapTools” Knowledge Model. In this
Cmap, the concept “Concept Maps” has a link to the Cmap “Concept Map about Concept Maps”
in the “Meaningful Learning” Knowledge Model. Notice in Figure 9 that the label underneath the
concept’s icon reads: “Meaningful Learning: Concept Map about Concept Maps”. When setting a
link to a resource, if the linked resource is not in the same Knowledge Model as the Cmap where
the link is being set, the destination’s Knowledge Model name is tagged on to the let of the link
label.
The purpose of providing the Knowledge Model as part of the label is to inform the user know
that following the link implies a change in domain or context. If the label did not indicate that the
destination Cmap is within the context of “Meaningful Learning”, then it would not be until the
Cmap is opened that the user would discover that the Cmap is not what he/she expected. By
providing the Knowledge Model, when opening the Cmap, the user is aware that it is from a
different domain.
Not providing semantics in the links is one of the main navigational problems of the WWW: it is
not until one opens the destination page of a link that one finds out that its content is not of
interest.
If the destination resource is within a hierarchy of Knowledge Models, then the path of
Knowledge Models from the root of the Place to the resource (the Knowledge Model Path) is
tagged on to the left of the link label. This label, however, is static and only set when the link is
established. If the destination resource is later moved to another Knowledge Model, the link’s
label is not updated.
During the construction of large Knowledge Models, adding, deleting, renaming, replacing,
linking, and, in general, the manipulating large numbers of resources leads to broken links. The
Tools/Validate & Fix Links... menu entry runs a tool that validates links and tries to fix those that
are broken. For those links it cannot fix, it gives the user the option to replace manually the
Consider the “Cmaps” folder (within the “CmapTools” folder, which is not designated as a
Knowledge Model) in Figure 10. If Validate & Fix Links is executed on the “Cmap” folder, links
are followed for validation throughout My Cmaps and to any Place that is referenced. If there are
broken links, the tool attempts to fix the broken links by looking for resources with the same
name and file type. (A link can be broken for many reasons. For example, if the user deleted an
image, and later decided to add it again with the same name, links to the image will be broken
since each resource is referenced through its unique resource-id, and in this case, the new version
of the image would have a different resource-id from the original). In this case, the search for the
target resource only takes place within the “Cmaps” folder and folders contained by it. Therefore,
the search will not take place in the folders “Images”, “Texts”, and “Videos” within the
“CmapTools” folder, where it would be likely that some of the broken link’s target resources be
found.
If the “CmapTools” folder is designated as a Knowledge Model, the tool is aware that links in
Cmaps within the Knowledge Model
probably target resources within the
Knowledge Model itself, and so a Validate
& Fix Links on the “Cmaps” folder
generates a search for target resources in
broken links that includes all resources
contained within “CmapTools” and its
subfolders. If resources with the same
name and file type are found, the links are
fixed automatically. Thus, the software
takes advantage of the designation of a
folder being a Knowledge Model to
automatically fix broken links to resources
within the Knowledge Model.
Figure 10
Users very often construct their Knowledge Models in their My Cmaps and periodically copy
them to a Place for sharing. Knowledge Models can grow to be quite large, such as “Return to
Mars” shown in Figure 1, which will not fit on a single CD.
When working with large Knowledge Models, copying all the resources every time the shared
Knowledge Model needs to be updated becomes time-consuming, particularly if working over a
low bandwidth connection.
CmapTools offers the option to Publish a Knowledge Model (option Tools/Publish in the Views
menus). The first time a Knowledge Model is Published, it is copied to the destination selected by
the user.
Figure 11 shows the dialogue box presented to the user the first time the Knowledge Model is
Published. The New Location button in the dialogue box allows the user to select the destination
directory where the Knowledge Model should be copied to.
As with a Copy of a folder, the links within the group of resources being copied are updated so
that they point to each other at the destination. If the source Knowledge Model is in My Cmaps,
the destination is in a Place, and there are links to resources outside the Knowledge Model, the
program will warn that other users will not be able to follow the links to those resources.
Figure 11
In contrast to a regular Copy operation, CmapTools takes note and “remembers” that the
Knowledge Model has been published, and where it has been Published to. A Knowledge Model
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can be Published to more than one destination. The next time the Publish tool is executed for that
Knowledge Model, the user is presented with the destinations where it has been Published, as
shown in Figure 12. Once the user selects the appropriate destination, the program updates the
destination Knowledge Model, by only copying new resources and those resources that have been
modified since the last Publish date. Thus, the Publish option allows a user to make changes to a
Knowledge Model and, in a single operation, make sure the Published version is up-to-date,
copying only changes made to the Knowledge Model since the last Publish operation.
Figure 12
To make sure the Published Knowledge Model is protected, the first Publish operation copies the
permissions of the source Knowledge Model to the destination. The user can then refine those
permissions at the destination. Subsequent Publish operations do not copy or alter the permissions.
Map of Cmaps
References
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Carnot, M. J., B. Dunn, A J. Cañas, P. Graham, J. Muldoon (2001) Concept Maps vs.
Web Pages for Information Searching and Browsing, Manuscript in preparation.
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